Homo sapiens had reached South-East Asia almost 20,000 years earlier than previously thought.
That research finding challenges current textbook assumptions about early human migration and should provide a wider understanding of the origins of our species.
This was the conclusion made by a team of scientists, including Filipino geoarchaeologist Vito Hernandez, after they unearthed “unmistakable evidence” of fossils and sediments showing that Homo sapiens – the only early species of humans that have survived – arrived in mainland South-East Asia 77,000 years ago.
Hernandez said these fossils – fragments of leg bones and a skull excavated from Tam Pa Ling cave in northeast Laos – were almost 20,000 years older than previously unearthed fossils in other sites in this region.
By measuring the age of the sediments surrounding the fossils and estimating when these were last exposed to light, the team estimated the fossils to be between 68,000 and 86,000 years old.
Their study was published in the June issue of the journal Nature Communications.”
Hernandez said most fossils of prehistoric humans were found in islands like those of the Philippines and Indonesia – citing fossils of Homo luzonensis and of Homo floresiensis.
Fossils previously discovered in mainland South-East Asia, with its humid climate, were often too weathered or severely fragmented, making them difficult to identify, Hernandez said.
Moreover, “because most of the fossils that we have found so far are in islands, the general thinking was that humans followed the coastlines when we dispersed out of Africa,” he said.
“Now these findings prove that our ancestors also moved through valleys and forests aside from islands and coasts.”
The study also showed that these early humans were part of a migrant population – coming from as far as Africa, as he noted. — The Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
